Left Behind
by totaldramaturtletitan
Summary: Three turtles and one rat escaped that night, fleeing to the sewers. One was overlooked, left behind to fend for himself. All things considered, he probably wouldn't survive. But he needed to, he had to find the others.
1. Mutation and Escape

**Hey...don't ever believe me when I say I'm not going to start any new stories. I'm a liar. But I really liked this idea, so...um...yeah...**

**I don't own TMNT.**

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Pain blinded him, bringing him to his knees. He hissed, gripping the concrete beneath him with a grimace. He had to leave, find a place to hide. If someone saw him looking like this, he'd be killed on spot, or taken in for experimenting. And the young turtles he had bought, they had been hit as well, and he had no idea what had happened to them.

Forcing himself through the agony, he crawled back towards the green puddle. Eyes closed from pain, he reached out blindly, scooping up three new mutants in one grab. Wrapping them in his arms, he stood on shaking legs, tears blurring his vision as he tried to think. His eyes landed on a manhole, and he stumbled towards it, pulling it open. Police sirens rang through the air as he pulled his new family into the sewer.

He landed in knee deep water, the grime splashing against and soaking his new fur. The triplets wriggled in his arms, so he wrapped his arms tighter around them. Control now back in his grasp, he began to wander through the dark tunnels. Stumbling through for what felt like hours, he eventually came across an old station, one he considered far enough away from civilization to keep them safe.

He wrapped the children up in an abandoned curtain, deciding food and water would be worried about in the morning. For now, his brain was frazzled, and he needed to rest. Laying down beside the wriggling pile, he closed his eyes, but kept himself awake until he heard three steady snores. Three. That number was important, somehow, but he couldn't...he was so tired...he needed...sleep...

On the surface, wrapped in a discarded magazine, russet eyes stared out. Multiple beings, ones like the creatures he had seen before, were talking. They were so loud, ringing through his ear slits, and he whimpered, shrinking back as much as he could. The words seemed to bounce through the alley, but he only caught a few. Even those meant nothing in his mind, just blank slates for him to draw on. "Liquid...yelling...citizen complaints...pet shop." Those words, they meant something to him. That's were he was before...that was important.

Eventually the discussion ended, and the turtle crawled out of his hiding spot. He stared at his new surroundings, trying to make sense of it all. Where were the others? He had been with others, others of his kind, and they were gone. He reasoned thy had left with the two legged one who had taken them, and he wanted desperately to see them again.

The child tried to pull himself up like he had seen the other things do, but his legs were unsteady, and he toppled to the ground. Pain exploded through his knees and hands, and his lips quivered, tears streaming down his face. He struggled to stand again, knees shaking as he hit the ground again. This continued for a few hours, until his legs were covered with bits of gravel and red liquid.

His stomach hurt too, and his head felt like he was hitting the concrete in his glass home over and over again.

Most of these couldn't be fixed, but when his stomach started to hurt in the 'pet shop', they gave him something. Feed, he thought it was called. They could give him more of this feed, help him out. Before he could expand on this thought, a light hit him, one much different from the dark shadows of his current place and the harsh lights of his former home. This light seemed...warm, comforting somehow.

Churring, he crawled into a patch of the light, gasping as the heat seemed to flow through his entire body. Curling up, he sighed a couple times before falling asleep in that spot, blissfully unaware of footsteps growing louder.


	2. New Home

**Wow, this story got a lot more attention than I thought it would! Thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, or left a review on this story! This chapter is a bit rusty due to medical issues, but I really wanted to get it out and posted, so I hope you enjoy! The beginning is definitely where I had the most trouble, but I think it's alright. I hope you guys enjoy the cruel irony with our little turtle and his 'name', as it slightly broke my heart thinking about it.**

**I don't own TMNT.**

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_Flames licked at the edges of his vision, burning his eyes. He held an arm against his face, trying to guard himself as he stepped forward. Something was pressing against his chest, holding him back. He could hear a child screaming, crying, and he had to get to her. He had to save her..._

He woke up to actual cries, multiple ones echoing through the room around him. Above him was a concrete ceiling, and from what he could see, concrete walls. Sunlight filtered in from some sort of vent in the ceiling. Breathing heavily, he reached up to wipe his eyes and was frozen by the sight. His hand, once human, was now pink and bony. The sight reminded him of the rats sold inthe pet shop. This brought back a flash of a memory, and he moved his gaze to the rest of his body.

He was covered in brown fur, and his feet had been affected in much the same way as his hands. Shaking, he touched his face, closing his eyes in horror when he felt a long nose and soft wiskers instead of his normal features. He was a rat, but not a normal one, not by any standards. He reminded himself of a monster from a cheap science fiction movie. He was some sort of hybrid, a freak.

His study of his new appearance had distracted him from his situation, and he snapped back to his senses. Deciding his problem would have to be set aside, he turned towards the source of the crying and gasped.

Three beings were curled around each other not a foot away from him. They were sobbing, clutching on to each other like they were beloved stuffed animals. The way they held themselves was that of a human toddler, and they shared many appearance traits with one. However, their skin was various shades of green, and a shell covered their torso. They were hybrids as well, turtle-like humans, or perhaps human-like turtles.

Seeing them brought back a flood of memories, small snippets of the night before, and he struggled to sort them through. Closing his eyes, he went through everything one at a time, distinguishing between his nightmare and reality.

He had stopped by the pet shop for a new friend. After much deliberation, he ended up with four baby turtles. After leaving the building, he was bumped into by a strange man and followed him. What was the saying? Curiosity killed the cat. He smiled slightly at his choice of words, the cruel irony hitting him. Yes, curiosity killed the cat, bringing him back as prey for his former self.

Amused, he returned to his task. A green ooze had hit him and, if their appearance was anything to go by, the turtles. He had been in the worst pain of his life, worse than the incident before. In a rush, every noise magnified and vision blurry, he had grabbed his former pets and pulled himself into a manhole. He roamed for hours until he arrived at an empty subway station, falling asleep soon after.

A twinge of sorrow hit him as he glanced at the three turtles. They were no longer crying, having reduced their noise to soft whimpers. He reached out for the closest one but paused, the beginning of his story nagging at his mind. He had left the store with four turtles, but only three were here. Standing up, he searched the room, hoping the fourth had simply wondered off, but in his heart, he knew what had happened. He had left the child on the surface, and by now, he could've been taken by someone, killed, or worse. He mentally slapped himself. Yes, he had been confused, but he had left a child behind, a mutant that could be all over the news by now. He could've subjected this child to horrible, horrible things.

He walked towards the exit, ready to go check if, by some miracle, the kid was still alive. He passed under a patch of light and stopped in his tracks, looking up at the world above. It was daytime. If he went now, he would no doubt be caught. Not to mention the other turtles, who he had been so quick to leave behind. He would have to start thinking more clearly if he was to make it through this.

Taking deep breaths, he turned back to the children, kneeling down beside them. Tonight, he would search for the missing turtle, but first, he needed food, for himself and the other three in his care.

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The turtle sighed happily. Whatever this light was, it felt amazing. So warm, comforting, and it made it so easy for him to relax. Now, he was well rested, but he wasn't ready to move just yet. Maybe if he stayed there, he could go back to sleep. He was still exhausted from the night's activities, after all.

Just as he managed to drift into dreamland, he was awoken by multiple gasps. Blinking, he pulled himself into a sitting position, carefully making out the image before him.

Three of those beings stood in front of him, staring down in a none too positive way. One of them spoke, her words making their way to the turtle's head. "Freak. Freak? What was that? It had to be referring to him, as she was looking right at him. The prospect excited him. He heard these beings call each other things all the time, but he had never gotten one besides 'turtle'. He was supposed to be called 'freak', not turtle. Yes, this made much more sense! Giggling softly, he clapped his hands together. He finally had something to be called!

This joy was short lived as rough hands yanked him up.

The next thing he knew he was being shaken, and three sets of eyes examined him. One of them pulled out a piece of metal and plastic, pushing a few buttons before beginning to speak into it rapidly. Suddenly self-conscious, he shrank back, pulling his head into his shell.

This resulted in him being turned upside down and staring at the ground that seemed miles away. One voice began to reprimand another, which answered in annoyance. As the two argued, the turtle stared at the ground in shock. Shrieking, he began to wiggle, eventually pulling away from the grasp that held him.

He fell to the ground, a sharp pain radiating throughout his body. Ignoring the yells behind him, he tried to stand, forgetting his earlier lesson. Hitting the ground yet again, he gasped, rolling over to see the beings towering over him, reaching out to grab him again. "It'll be okay. We're going to take to a safe place."

These words meant nothing to him, only sparking more fear. Searching for an escape route, he began to panic, until his eyes landed on a hole.

Yellow tape surrounded the area, but he could get through it. He just had to get past the beings and into the hole, and he'd be alright.

Staring up at their faces one last time, he waited until the hands were inches away before jumping between pairs of legs. He crawled as quickly as he could, pulling himself forward until he had reached the yellow barrier.

Scrambling through it, he pulled himself through the hole to the sounds of distant sirens and scarily close shouts.

Instantly, he was in a free fall, screaming as he tried to find a hold on something, anything. This was to no avail, and he hit water below with a sharp snap.

Instinctively holding his breath, he stayed under, staring through the ripples at light shining through. It was a solid circle, with no shadows blocking it, but he stayed still until he felt as though his lungs would explode.

Pulling up with a gasp, he floated in the water. Voices sounded above him, and he made the decision to swim, ducking under the surface and moving away from the light. As hopeless as he was moving like the beings were, he did fine in water.

After a few minutes of swimming, he grew tired, drifting to the side of the tunnel until he had a grip on the ledge. Leaning his head against it, he rested for a moment before lifting his eyes and looking around.

Some distance away, an empty doorway lead to a large, round room. Curiosity peaked, he pulled himself in, peering closer.

A ledge surrounded the perimeter of the room, but the center was filled with water. A waterfall roared down on one side of the circle. Freak, as he had begun to call himself, followed the flow of the water from the hole it was spilling out from, to the center of the room and out, until he had turned around and was looking back the way he came. No wonder he had gotten tired so easily. He was swimming against the water, not with it.

Proud of himself for deducing that, Freak pulled himself into the room, soft laughter escaping him as he was pulled into the center and pushed back out. Flipping onto his back, he kicked towards the ledge, pulling out of the water and going to investigate the waterfall.

To his delight, he could slip behind it. A small path entered into a tiny version of the room on the other side. There wasn't a pool so much as a small puddle of water, and the rest of the area was dry. Turning around, it was nearly impossible for him to see the rest of the room, which provided him with a feeling he didn't get very often in his old glass tank.

Turning his attention to the puddle, he dipped a finger in to see just how deep it was. This observing was interrupted by a movement in corner of his vision. He ducked closer to the water, studying the moving surface.

He could just make out some sort of person with dark eyes and green skin. Somehow, Freak understood that he was looking at himself. He didn't look like those other, much louder beings. He also didn't look like the ones he used to live with, either. All in all, he looked pretty...what was the word they used in the pet store sometimes? Cool. He looked cool. His face broke out in a grin, and he was distracted once more by a gap in his smile. He stuck his tongue into the gap, smiling in amusement. It reminded him of the smaller beings that came into the pet store and looked at him sometimes.

He had decided that this would be a new home. The water wasn't as clean as what it was in his old home. In fact, it was coated with a green slime, and every noise he made echoed loudly, but it was all his.

A pang in his stomach reminded him that he had never gotten anything from the pet store. He couldn't go back, what if they were still there? No, he would have to find something himself. What that was, he didn't know, but hopefully he'd know when he found it. Yes, he'd get food, and then he'd look for the others.


	3. New names and New food

**I really should be updating my other stories, but I'm having so much fun with this one, I just had to do another chapter! My medical issues have turned into me being incredibly sick, so this chapter is just as rusty if not more so as the last chapter. Again, thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites, and enjoy the story!**

**I don't own them.**

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Gathering food with three small turtles would be no easy task. They were constantly pushing at and pulling away from each other, making a task as simple as picking them up take ages. It was because of this that the man considered himself lucky to have found a subway station with a fountain.

He was aware of turtle feeding habits, having owned a few terrapins in Japan. The pool was covered in algae, and worms surrounded the area. Turtles ate both of these in the wild, and he had no reason to believe they wouldn't eat it in their current state. The three were whining even as he leaned over the pool to gather the food, and as long as it had been since they had been fed, he was sure they would eat anything.

Being a man raised in etiquette, he made each turtle sit down before serving them. Granted, they had no plates or silverware, but he managed to keep things nicely separated. Almost as soon as the food was placed in front of them, the children began to eat, stuffing food into their mouths and moaning noise reminded him of another child he once knew. The thought made his heart ache, and that only intensified as he studied the turtles. They were so young, not even able to speak outside of a few repeated words, and they had already been through so much. He had at least been able to enjoy life for a few decades before it was destroyed, but they would spend their entire lives hiding.

He began to wonder if it was better to be a pet or to spend life like they would have to, leaning towards the former if only because as a pet, you wouldn't realize what was happening. Immersed in his thoughts, he didn't register a tugging on his fur until it rose to his sensitive whiskers.

Twitching his nose, he turned to see one of the turtles. His eyes were dark blue and had seemed so serious, even before the transformation had happened, and the man had begun to think of him as the oldest.

"Yes, child?" The turtle looked down at his hands, fidgeting before mumbling something indistinguishable. It was turtle-like in its churring, but it was also reminiscent of a baby's gibberish. The turtle looked up again, and it must have registered the confusion on the man's face, as it began to chatter again, gesturing at its brothers as he did.

The man moved his eyes to the other two. Their makeshift 'plates' were empty, as was the other's, but one area had algae pushed into it as thought were filling in a gap. The man quickly understood what they had done. Yes, they were children, but they were intelligent, and they had assumed he had forgotten to feed their brother. And now, they were asking where he was.

"He...isn't eating today." The turtle blinked slowly before nodding and running back to the others. He mumbled something, and they responded by picking up the saved food and stuffing in into their mouths.

The man knew he needed to name them. He couldn't continue calling them its, as they were so much more. He had a few names picked out when he bought them, but they seemed like names you would only give a pet, nothing you would give to someone who could actually understand what it meant. But, he mused, they could always go by nicknames. And it wasn't as though they would be meeting anyone else in their lifetimes. No, the names he had picked out would be fine.

Two of the brothers had begun to smear leftovers on each other's faces, and the man knew they would need a bath soon. He couldn't use the water here, as that would only make them dirtier, but they had to be cleaned. His apartment would still have running water, and he needed to pick a few things up anyway. Besides, the pet store wasn't far from his apartment, and he was planning to search for the other turtle. A glance at the ceiling told him the sun was going down, and he stood.

"Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo." The three looked up instantly, hands and faces covered in algae. The smallest cooed, poking himself in the face as if confirming that he was being spoken to. "Yes, you, Mikey." Mikey giggled, poking himself repeatedly. His green eyed brother glared at him, reaching out to slap his hand when he wouldn't stop. "Raphael." The man warned firmly before continuing his earlier statement. "We are going to..." Here he paused. He couldn't tell them they were going to get his brother in case they didn't find him, but he didn't feel right lying to them at such a young age. "We are going to get some supplies for our home. Leo, do you think you can walk so I can hold your brothers?"

"Le...oh?" The terrapin whispered, smiling and nodding. He stood, nudging his brothers with the edge of his foot until they followed suit. Before the man could make a move to pick them up, Leo poked him, churring again. Learning from before, the child launched into an explanation immediately, pointing at himself-'Le-oh', and his brothers-'Raf-el' and 'My-key-o', respectively. Then he pointed at the man, opening his mouth slightly.

"You want to know my name?" He had a name, once, but it didn't seem to fit him anymore. He wasn't the man he used to be, and a new name needed to go with that change. An old nickname floated to the front of his mind. "You may call me...Splinter."

Raphael made a noise, gesturing towards the spot they had set up for their missing brother. Splinter, beginning to understand them, sighed. "Your brother, when we find him, will be called Donatello."

"Done-tel-oh." Leo responded. Not be to outdone, his brothers quickly tried to say the name themselves, stuttering through it, but overall, succeeding.

"Yes," Splinter whispered. The three stared at his empty spot, bringing their eyes to Splinter's questioningly. "He...will be here soon." He held on to the last bit of hope he had that the fourth turtle had managed to stay hidden, making a silent wish that this hope not be empty. Ignoring his prior decision to keep their destination a secret, he scooped up the younger two. "In fact, we're going to find him now."

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Freak held up the wriggling thing in his hand, scrunching his face up. This looked like what the beings gave him before, but he didn't remember them looking so unappetizing. However, he didn't have another option. The hard surface below and around him couldn't possibly be eaten, and so far, nothing else had revealed itself.

No, he was stuck with whatever this thing was. Perhaps it would've been easier for him to eat if it wasn't moving so much. Taking a deep breath, he dropped the thing into his mouth, choking as it slid directly down his throat. Coughing, he hit his chest a couple times. Once the thing went down, he whimpered, rubbing his neck.

Making a note to never drop it in like that again, Freak picked up another one, placing it on his tongue. The initial taste wasn't too bad, but the way the thing moved in his mouth nearly brought him to tears. Once he began to chew, this thought was lost as the taste hit him and he was caught in a gagging fit. Whining, he closed his eyes as he chewed, eventually managing to swallow the thing.

Rubbing at his tongue, he decided he was done. His stomach was still hurting, but it wasn't worth more disgust for the time being. Instead, he turned his attention to the pool of water in the center of his home. Water was good. He trusted water. Reaching his hands in, he scooped up a handful of the liquid. Ignoring the green tint, he poured the water into his mouth, swallowing it quickly.

This decision proved to be worse than his first one. The green slime slid down his throat, leaving a thick film in his mouth. The water itself tasted horrible, and he swore multiple somethings were moving inside of it.

The thought of those little tiny things filling his water was too much. Freak didn't even manage to lean over the water before vomiting, the contents of his stomach falling over his torso. Disgusted and exhausted, he fell down, choking. His stomach hurt more than it did when the ordeal started, and he still needed to look for the others. But he was so tired, and his stomach was making awful noises, and for now, he would sleep.


End file.
